Introduction - My name is David Kuflik and I believe I may have one of the best Celebrity autograph collections out there

(apologies in advance for the length of my post)

Hello, my name is David Kuflik and I believe I may have one of the best celebrity autograph collections on the planet. My father (Harvey Kuflik) and aunt (Rhoda Kuflik) started collecting in-person autographs in New York in the early 1950’s and continued vigorously collecting their whole lives (Harvey passed in 2002 and Rhoda passed in 2012). Both collected for the love of it and didn’t sell their autographs. Their collections are fully intact and almost all of them were collected in person. My father also acquired a couple smaller autograph collections from his collecting friends in Hollywood. I collected actively with my father in Hollywood as a kid in the 1980’s. I inherited their collections and after working 17 years at Microsoft, I left my day job and have dedicated the past two years full time curating this collection.

I’ve got close to 80,000 autographs, more than 20,000 of which are signed photos. I have very few duplicates of the same photo. 22 Marilyn Monroe autographs, 6 of which are signed photos. I’ve also got a lot of good sports and music autographs as well.

My celebrity autograph collection is going to be featured in a dedicated 30 minute TV episode on a major cable network in the coming weeks.

What am I going to do with all these autographs? I’m going to sell them. I did a small auction with RR Auction in September. http://www.rrauction.com/past_auction_results.cfm?SearchCrit=kuflik... .

I’m currently in their February auction with some modern autographs. See here. http://www.rrauction.com/browse_gallery.cfm?SearchCrit=%20%20&C...=

I plan to use RR Auction at the high end of the spectrum, but that only covers a few thousand items. For all the other autographs, I plan to sell those directly to consumers along with my unsigned headshots from my website (hasn’t launched yet), via eBay, and Amazon. I’ve decided to roll my sleeves up and sell directly because there is just too much sweat equity in these autographs to sell in bulk at wholesale prices. I have no plans to ever acquire autographs from outside sources. I’m just a guy who inherited this awesome pristine collection and will exit the business when everything is sold.

It’s also worth noting that I also have several hundred thousand original unsigned Agency Headshots with resumes of almost every actor and actress from the late 1970’s until 2004. These headshots were actually used in the casting process and nobody else has these in any quantity. Many of the photos are not on the Internet. I never sold autographs but I sold these headshots on eBay in the early 2000’s under the name risingstarphotos and they were very popular. We were the top seller of the Movie photos category on eBay for years. I’ve never sold autographs before but have a lot of past experience in the memorabilia business selling headshots on eBay at high volumes. My father got over 3,000 of these headshots signed, many before the actors were even famous.

Here's a glimpse of the b- list signed headshot collection. I’ve put aside hundreds of a-listers in a different folder: https://1drv.ms/i/s!An5aCe8YraAGhr4Mq3b8WlWlOgJdug

Here’s is where it all started:

https://1drv.ms/f/s!An5aCe8YraAGieY0SgwkxE1Q5Tb8uA

There is sooooooo much more than this in many different forms (Lobby Cards, Books, Color Photos, Candid Photos, Cast Photos, etc.) I’ve been a lurker here on autograph live for the past two years and thought I would introduce myself before my TV episode airs. I’m also hoping to learn from the experts here and gather feedback and reality checks on my business approach. Unfortunately, the autograph ecosystem is full of forgeries, which hurts the industry. I’m hoping I can inject some needed authenticity into the business.

Tags: Awesome

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Permalink Reply by Pete Bendu on February 8, 2017 at 5:07pm

I placed bids on 2 items in tonight's RR auction, dropped out of the bidding on both due to the ridiculous s/h charges, buyer's premium, and the company's refusal to accept credit cards and/or Paypal. I would have gladly paid more direct to a collector on both pieces, instead the consignor loses out on better money, and I lose out on pieces worth far more than they sold for. Really a shame.

When did customer service in this hobby become so non-existent? I guess they do well enough not to care about losing customers in this economy.

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Permalink Reply by Mike T on February 8, 2017 at 5:21pm

I agree, RR has really gone down hill since they stopped credit cards and hiked their premiums. It's a little crazy now.

I'm not sure how people pay for anything on there.. with a check? I don't even have checks anymore LoL. They're going backwards not forwards.

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Permalink Reply by Don Webster on February 8, 2017 at 6:07pm

So does anyone know how they expect payment??

Credit cards I can maybe see but they don't take PayPal??

Wow....that's nuts....

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Permalink Reply by Pete Bendu on February 8, 2017 at 8:37pm

Cash, Check, Money Order or Bank Wire.

All forms that leave the buyer no chance of winning in case of an issue arising.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Paul on February 9, 2017 at 8:40am

I was going to sign up for their auction a while back and your point is precisely why I didn't.

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Permalink Reply by sling on February 13, 2017 at 8:32pm

U PAY in advance on something your thinking you might win a bid on...is'nt the way today?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Viola on February 9, 2017 at 7:04am

Agree, Used to look forward to their monthly auctions. They used to start bidding according to the persons value. I remember some bidding starting at 50.00. Now everyone starts at 200.00 be it Clint Eastwood or a D lister. Ridiculous.